Deregulation Act 2015 and the Deposit Scheme
The Deregulation Act received Royal Assent on 26 March 2015.
It provides for major changes in a number of areas of law. The Deregulation Act 2015 (Commencement No. 1 and Transitional and Saving Provisions) Order 2015 (SI 2015/994) provides that the Act will come into force gradually.
Sections 30-32 amending s213-215 of the Housing Act 2004 and the Deposit scheme are however now in force and are retrospective, which includes the following changes:
• A deposit taken before April 2007 where the tenancy has become periodic after that date must be protected and have prescribed information served within 90 days i.e. by 23 June 2015 (at which point they will be protected and treated as always having been so).
• A deposit taken after April 2007 that was protected with the prescribed information served at some stage during the initial tenancy will be treated as having had the prescribed information served on every renewal or on becoming a statutory periodic tenancy.
• A deposit taken before April 2007 which became periodic before that date must be protected or returned before a s21 notice can be served.
• For the prescribed information the rules are amended to allow for an agent’s details to be given in place of a landlord’s details where the agent is handling the deposit.
• S33 retaliatory evictions where a section 21 is notice served by the landlord following a complaint of disrepair from a tenant may be invalid. These provisions will come into force in October 2015
• The prescribed form for Section 21 notice will come into use in July 2015. The issue of incorrect ‘dates’ for when the tenant has to leave in the notice has now been removed. Where there has always been a periodic tenancy then a Notice under Section 21(4) does not have to end on the last day of a rental period of the tenancy it only has to give two months notice.
If you have any queries concerning the matters raised please contact Aisha Akhtar, Solicitor on 020 8567 3477 or e-mail aakhtar@prince-evans.co.uk